Siting of wind turbines is burdensome, in particular in respect of on-shore turbines. Geographical regions must be identified, which are appropriate in terms of wind conditions as well as in terms of aesthetic appearance and possible noise annoyances, and relevant public authorities must approve the erection of a wind turbine or a wind turbine farm in a certain region. Once a geographical region has been identified as a site for a wind turbine or a wind turbine farm, much effort is usually put into detailed siting to optimize power output of the wind turbine(s). Such optimization may include empirical or numerical wind flow determination in the geographical region of interest to determine wind climate, including average wind speed and pre-dominant wind directions. The wind speed at various locations within the region of interest may be translated into a potential power output of the wind turbine to be sited. Typically, the potential power output varies from location to location within the region. The exact position of a single wind turbine is often chosen to be that position, at which the potential power output is highest. Likewise, siting of wind farms typically aims at distributing the wind turbines to achieve a maximum power output.
It will be appreciated that much is done in terms of aerodynamic site optimisation to ensure maximum power output. However, maintenance costs have hitherto been disregarded when siting wind turbines or wind turbine farms, in spite of the fact that maintenance, including component replacement, presents a significant cost item in wind turbine budgets. Hence, certain aspects of the present invention aim at taking maintenance parameters into consideration in a wind turbine siting computer system and method.
Other aspects of the present invention relate to visualization of wind turbines to be erected at a certain geographical location. Such visualization is relevant not only to provide an aesthetical comprehension of the visual impacts of a wind turbine or a wind turbine farm in a certain geographical area, but also to provide siting engineers with a technical comprehension, e.g. to allow engineers to spot inexpedient mutual positions of two wind turbines, such as positions in which a wake effect downstream of one wind turbine could cause undesirable turbulence at or near a second wind turbine. In other words, with the experience of skilled wind turbine siting engineers, an accurate visualization of a projected wind turbine or wind turbine farm may replace or at least reduce the need for expensive numerical computations and/or wind tunnel tests.
Given the above background, it is an object of preferred embodiments of the present invention to provide a system and a method, which allows maintenance costs to be taken into account during siting of wind turbines. It is a further object of preferred embodiments of the present invention to provide a method and a system, which allows wind turbines to be sited at positions, in which the ratio between power output and maintenance costs is maximized. It is a further object of preferred embodiments of the present invention to provide a visualization tool, which provides an improved technical and aesthetic comprehension of projected wind turbines.